Keith Olberman, that modern minstrel and scholar, recently chastised Obama for his alacrity in supporting FISA, or Federally condoned, and probably illegal, definitely limiting our Liberties, spying program.
His main point was that as it goes he can support the bill and claim to champion civil rights by having his new AG sue the participants under criminal (as opposed to civil) law. It was a political move by Obama not to upstage the current Congress and their sausage making progress, but for civil libertarians a bit of a let down all the same.
In that monologue, he substantiated one of his points by referring to our late great President Washington’s last speech in office, and specifically referred to the warning contained therein AGAINST THE ESTABLISHMENT OF PARTIES.
I was pleased to be reminded of this speech, and was reminded why I am neither Tweedle-DEM or Tweedle-PUB! I would like to use this opportunity to expand on the definitions of WHAT MAKES THE RATTLESNAKE PARTY? and UNIVERSAL FACTION….
A thing to note is the intelligence and force of intelligence the speaker gives his argument and the depths he goes into at an almost philosophical level.
On the other hand, one can imagine that it would defy the conventions of that day on December 23, 1783 to have reporters digging literally asking the highest office questions like “boxers or briefs?” The audience was probably more respectful, rapt, and had a better tendency towards paying attention for long periods of time to people speaking (as that was effectively the entertainment of the day—reading books aloud, singing songs, theatre, etc.).
Finally a piece of context no doubt understood but not fully explained in the Olberman diatribe: Had Washington not resigned, not given the speech, not thought of the greater good, he could have ruled indefinitely and reverted to monarchical and/or what we term now fascistic governance.
Therefore, these words are to be considered metaphorically as if Moses himself came down from the mount, because no President since, and God willing none ever after, shall have such unanimous popularity and source of absolute power, in any one moment of time within the Great American Experiment.
I will be quoting from excerpts from that fine speech, fulltext, making brief commentary, and these concepts tie in the Rattlesnake Party.
§13. “Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty.”
Think to Eisenhower’s admonition of the Military Industrial Complex! Further extrapolate that the concept of Party, and thereby any assembly, that would rely upon overburdened force, threat or destruction are thence to be treated in the social concept of Liberty as a direct and personal threat, and a collective threat to the state of Union between States.
§15. “One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts. You cannot shield yourselves too much against the jealousies and heart-burnings, which spring from these misrepresentations; they tend to render alien to each other those, who ought to be bound together by fraternal affection.”
True libertarians therefore seek fraternity before identity, and through intellect, reason, and fair persuasion gain consensus amongst people and therefore groups of people. Party only serves to dismiss such persuasion before it can be heard, discoursed, or counter-argued.
§17. “All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.”
If ever prescient words were ever spoken, here we find ourselves today in exactly the predicament foreseen by the Great General.
In plain English:
1. When the process of creating laws are obstructed unjustly by any organization in ways designed to control that process of reason and deliberation, then the principal of law itself is undermined, probably fatally.
2. Any organization that would use unjust means for false purposes, will tend to put in place their voice rather than the voice of the people and their elected officials, even though they may be only an artful and enterprising minority, and according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.
Although Washington’s last phrase isn’t exactly Plain English, it is truly what we have witnessed in Congress for far too long! I had to leave that phrase in tact.
§22. “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.”
Washington here refers to the Politics from which the Great American Experiment was born, and from whence he and our founders prayed we would never return to. This expands and reflects the description above in §17, and how foul have we gone to have the very situation in our modern Congress as the first step in this four-step recipe of Washington’s observations as to the origins of despotism and the nature of fascism?
§25. “There is an opinion, that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the Government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of Liberty. This within certain limits is probably true; and in Governments of a Monarchical cast, Patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in Governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged.”
Although not as alarming as some of the other thoughts, warnings, and premonitions. This is a very clear statement that Party Politics is not suitable to true Democracy in a Republic of States.
RATTLESNAKE
Let us be vigilant to these truths observed long ago by the man who went from defeat at New York to this sublime and greatest triumph for Liberty, that of relinquishment of power in the name of a greater cause.
Rattlesnake is not a “party,” but to make simple the thought of what we are attempting to influence we must be within the convention of any reader’s eyes and ears convenient. Rattlesnake is a Universal Faction, which believes all lawful and legal Americans are our brothers and sisters in arms.
And although one may argue this is the plain definition of American, we do believe that until the course of law is witnessed there are amongst our law abiding brethren an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community.
These people and groups are not party to our cause, and until such time as the “fatal tendency” of such persons are diminished, we would call ourselves a “party.”
Once that cause is realized, then the concept of Universal Faction becomes clearer: There would be no “win-lose” paradigm; Rattlesnake no longer need be a “party,” rather another part of the Universal Faction; and thereby the interest of the people would be better served.
Universal Faction is a subset of the greater liberty and freedom by which we define ourselves as Americans.
There is no Membership Card. You pay no fees or dues. This is true liberty.
You either believe or you don’t.
May we all be blessed upon this the 232nd anniversary of our Independence!
